


Stones

by Eggling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-16 18:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14816666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: Five times the Doctor gave Jamie a stone, and one time he actually asked him out.





	Stones

**Author's Note:**

> for [keatulie](http://keatulie.tumblr.com/).

“Oh, dear, oh dear.” The Doctor crouched down on the ground, fumbling around for a latch. “How much oxygen do we have left?”

“Erm...” Jamie twisted his head around, trying to read the dial on his spacesuit’s shoulder pad. “About fifteen minutes, I think.”

“Oh, dear,” the Doctor repeated, casting around with renewed energy. “If only we hadn’t lost those blueprints. Help me look, would you, Jamie?”

Jamie knelt beside him, surveying the endless expanse of dust and pebbles before them. “What about the… the beasties?”

“The radiotheres? Oh, I shouldn’t worry about them. Suffocation will kill us first, if the heat doesn’t.” The Doctor crawled away, and Jamie followed him, searching the sand for any glint of metal. “Surely they’d have made the handles obvious in some way – aha!”

Hope soared in Jamie’s chest. “Ye found it?”

“No, but I did find a rather promising node of illumate.” The Doctor pointed to a large chunk of rock. “It’s not glowing yet, it should be safe to collect.”

“Och, Doctor, now’s not the time for your rocks,” Jamie complained. “We’re lookin’ for the way back in, remember?” He squinted up at the sun, glad that his visor was tinted. If only the endless, barren expanse had not looked so different at night, he thought. Then they might know if they were in the right place.

“But this is exactly what I was looking for!” The Doctor was already scrambling towards the rock. “If I can get this, then...” He made as if to lift the rock, but it did not budge. “Oh, crumbs. The surface fires seem to have fused it to the ground somehow. Help me break it off, would you?”

Jamie sighed, but joined him by the rock. There was no point in wasting precious air arguing over the Doctor’s whims and fancies, he told himself. “What’s it stuck to?” he asked instead. “It’s just dust here.”

“It’s stuck to the hull of the ship!” the Doctor exclaimed. “Brilliant, Jamie. We were in the right place after all. There must be some way in nearby. I’ll just lift this -” He gave a great heave, but only succeeded on toppling over backwards, the rock remaining fixed to the ground as firmly as ever. “Goodness, it is stuck fast, isn’t it?”

“You’re just no’ grabbing it right,” Jamie said. “There’s a funny sort of ridge on this side, ye have to hold onto that.”

“I did hold onto it.”

“No, like this -” Taking hold of the rock, Jamie heaved it upwards, giving the Doctor a strained grin when he felt it start to move. “There, see, ye just have tae put your back into it.” He grimaced. “Heavier than it looks, though.”

“That would be because you’re picking the ground up with it,” the Doctor said. Jamie followed his gaze down to the rock, and almost dropped it in surprise when he saw that he was right. “My word, what’s it fused with?” Fumbling for the jagged edge that had broken away from the ground, the Doctor pushed it further up to feel underneath it. “Hinges!” he exclaimed a moment later. “Jamie, we’ve found the hatch!”

“But it’s just a stone!” The ground was coming away more easily now. With one final heave, Jamie managed to pull the hatch lid upright until it refused to go any further, hanging tilted at an odd angle above the ground.

“It’s not real illumate,” the Doctor said, tapping at the exposed metal underside. “When the first scientists came here, they -” A red light was flashing on his shoulder, and Jamie reached out and tapped it, cutting the Doctor’s words off.

“We’re runnin’ out of air,” he said. “Ye can tell me when we’re inside.”

“Ah – yes, you’re quite right.” The Doctor peered down the hatch. “I’m afraid we were a little turned around.”

“Is that bad?”

“No, no, but we’ve found the abandoned part of the ship. The lift’s broken.” He squinted into the darkness. “It shouldn’t be too far down.”

“Here.” Jamie nudged him out of the way. “I’ll go first. That way I can catch ye if ye need it.” Sitting down on the edge of the hatch, he eased himself inside, sighing in relief when his feet quickly touched the ground. Holding his hands up to the Doctor to help him down, he glanced around the room. “Where are we?”

“One of the first entrances, I shouldn’t wonder.” Pushing himself up onto his tiptoes, the Doctor pulled the hatch down over them. “Yes, this has been abandoned for a long time. I do hope there’s enough residual power to get the airlock to work properly.” Jamie nodded wordlessly, too breathless to speak. Already the air inside his spacesuit seemed thin, and he pressed his hands over his chest as if to calm his racing heart and save what precious oxygen he had left. Even the Doctor looked as if he was a little light-headed as he fiddled with the buttons on the door. “Ah! Yes, I’ve managed to divert enough power.”

The door slid open, and Jamie hurried into the next compartment, slumping onto the nearest bench gratefully. “Can we take our helmets off yet?” he mumbled.

“Just a moment.”

It seemed to take an age for the door to close again, and Jamie wondered if they would collapse even as they were on the brink of safety. At last, it clicked shut, and he pulled his helmet off with clumsy eagerness. “I didnae think we’d make it back,” he admitted.

“We should’ve known it wasn’t real illumate,” the Doctor said, sitting down beside him. “The sun was up. It was hot enough that it ought to have been glowing.”

“Why would anyone make a handle look like a fake rock?” Jamie mumbled, tipping his head back against the wall. “Were they trying tae trick people?”

“To save on memory space,” the Doctor explained. “When the ship first landed here, they used robots to explore the surface and collect illumate samples. I suppose they were trying to be efficient by having the robot only recognise one image, not two.”

“Oh.” Jamie struggled to wrap his head around it, feeling as if his mind was clogged up with the dust that blew incessantly across the planet’s surface. Seeing his expression, the Doctor chuckled and patted his hand.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said comfortingly. “We made it back inside, that’s what’s important.” He turned Jamie’s hand over, placing something in his palm and closing his fingers over it. “Here, this came off the handle. I thought you might like to have it.”

Jamie peered down at the chunk of rock curiously, turning it over. “Is there somethin’ special about it?”

“Not particularly.” The Doctor gave him a small smile. “Just a memento of a lucky escape, I suppose. After all, you did just save our lives.”

* * *

Jamie leant around the laboratory doorway, surveying the damage the Doctor had caused. “Have ye found anything?”

“Mm?” The Doctor’s face appeared between dangerously tilting stacks of paper. His eyes were heavy with thought and exhaustion, and he seemed to be staring at Jamie without properly seeing him. A pencil was sticking out from the tousled mess of his hair, stuck behind his ear and long since forgotten. “Oh, no, not yet.”

“Oh. Can I get ye anything?”

“No, no.” The Doctor waved his hand, beckoning Jamie closer. “Come and have a look at this.”

Stepping cautiously around the discarded papers and boxes that littered the ground, Jamie took the object the Doctor was holding out to him. “One of those funny wee stones?”

The Doctor nodded, his head already bent over his notes again. “What do you think of it?”

Turning the stone over in his hands, Jamie shrugged. “It’s just an ordinary stone.” Flecks of iridescence in the rough-cut edges caught the light as he moved it, flashing blue and red and silver. “’Spose it’s pretty. I dinnae ken why everyone here’s so keen on it, though.”

“They use it as fuel,” the Doctor explained. “This planet was meant to have a quickly renewing supply of it. It’s not really a stone at all, you see, it’s the shed shells of a type of crustacean native to this planet -”

“Oh, aye, so it is,” Jamie interrupted hurriedly. “What’s so wrong with all that, then?”

“Well, the creatures started dying out, you see. The early settlers built right on top of the creatures’ spawning grounds, and now they want fuel faster than the shells are shed, so they’ve started killing the adult creatures that are left. I’d like to help them find an alternative fuel source.”

Jamie glanced at the stacks of paper littering the room. “Surely that’s no’ so hard.”

“Oh, it wouldn’t be, but – the people here don’t understand what they’ve done to these creatures. They think it’s sabotage. And they won’t listen to me, they’re too determined to go to war over it.” The Doctor rubbed at his eyes, finally seeming to register how tired he was. “I suspect it’s little more than an excuse to get at an old enemy.”

“Oh.” Perching tentatively on a nearby pile of books, Jamie examined the stone again. “Do people ever stop going to war? Over silly wee things like rocks, I mean.”

“In some places.”

“Seems like everywhere we go, there’s fighting.”

“Well, if I can help them establish an artificial spawning grounds here – or better still, help them synthesise the necessary chemicals themselves – there won’t be any need for war. That counts for something.” The Doctor looked up at Jamie, his lips pursed in thought. “Do you ever think about leaving us behind and staying somewhere, Jamie?”

Jamie snorted, shaking his head. “An’ leave ye tae get yourself into trouble, with nobody tae get ye out of it? Never.” He reached over to touch the Doctor’s arm reassuringly. “Ye dinnae normally worry about that. Did something happen?”

“Polly wasn’t so pleased with – ah – the state of things, earlier,” the Doctor said. “I was curious to know whether you shared her feelings on the matter.”

“Ye know I like this,” Jamie said. “Bein’ with you,” he added awkwardly. “I mean -”

“I know what you mean.” Smiling, the Doctor reached out to pat his hand. “You oughtn’t let me forget how lucky I am to have you, you know.”

“Lucky?” the Doctor turned back to his notes, ignoring the question. Only when Jamie tried to hand the stone back to him did he look up, waving it away.

“Oh, no, you keep it. I have plenty of samples here.”

“Aye, alright.” Jamie tucked the stone into his pocket. “I’m going tae bed, then. Are ye sure ye don’t need anything?”

“I’m quite alright, thank you.” Forgetting the papers piled haphazardly around them, Jamie yawned, stretching and hitting his hand against one of the stacks on the Doctor’s desk. It teetered dangerously for a moment, then collapsed into another pile, strewing the contents over the desk and onto the floor. “Oh, _Jamie_ -”

“I’m sorry -”

“You really ought to be more careful – oh!” The Doctor seized one of the papers and held it up to the light. “I’ve been looking for this for hours!” He shuffled papers and pens and stones out of the way at random, tipping them onto the floor, where they knocked over yet more piles. “Thank you, Jamie!”

“You’re welcome,” Jamie said, a little bemusedly. Shaking his head, he turned to leave, taking care to step over the scattered books and papers. “G’night, Doctor.”

“Mm?” The Doctor did not look up from his paper.

Smiling to himself fondly, Jamie closed the door behind him. “Funny wee chappie.”

* * *

A small object clattered to the floor, and Jamie sprang back, startled. When he bent down to pick it up and examine it, another object came flying through the doorway beside him, hitting the side of his head. Sighing, he got to his feet and turned towards the doorway, expecting to see the Doctor, but instead finding the room empty.

“Hello?” he called out tentatively. “Is anyone there?” The Doctor might have liked to talk about the TARDIS as if it could think for itself, and Jamie might have seen rooms appear and vanish of their own accord, but he had never known the ship to toss things around at random before. “Doctor, is that you?”

At last, he caught sight of the Doctor – or rather, the lower half of him. His legs were hanging out of a large chest, his feet dangling several inches above the floor. At length, he squirmed out of the chest, landing on the floor with a huff. “Jamie! I didn’t expect you to be back so soon.” He held up the small carved bird figurine he held in one hand. “Scavenged Aliphoub ivory from the twentieth millenium. Handmade, if I recall rightly. It’s probably – ah – rather valuable, somewhere.”

“Oh.”

The Doctor tossed it to one side, where it joined several cogs, something Jamie could only guess was a funny-looking clock, and a threadbare cushion. “Did you want something?”

Jamie blinked at him for a moment, taking in his dishevelled, dust-covered appearance. After a moment’s staring, he clicked his fingers, remembering why he had been searching for the Doctor in the first place. “Ben an’ Polly are still outside. They said they wanted tae have a picnic.”

“Oh!” The Doctor picked a small, ornate mirror up off the chair beside him. “How charming.” He held the mirror up in front of himself, chuckling in an odd way that Jamie had not heard before. It was as if another person had spoken through his mouth for a moment – no, Jamie told himself. Surely that was beyond even the Doctor. “Yes, charming.”

“ _Doctor_. They wanted me tae ask if you’d like tae come with us.”

“Mm?” The Doctor looked up from the mirror. “I was just remembering – oh, never mind.” He replaced the mirror on the chair with a gentleness that surprised Jamie after his previous haphazardness. “I think that belonged to dear Susan. It would be a shame to break it.” He shook himself. “Tell them I’m quite busy here, thank you.”

“Aye, alright, I’ll tell them.” Jamie glanced around the room, trying to remember if he had ever seen it before. It was packed from floor to ceiling with boxes, cupboards, shelves, and loose items, some of them recognisable, many of them alien to him. He was sure he would not have forgotten seeing a room like this, and yet he had walked down the corridor outside many times. “What _are_ ye doin’?”

“Spring cleaning,” the Doctor said unhelpfully. “I’m only about fifty years overdue.”

“Oh, aye.” It was one of those times, Jamie thought, when he could not tell whether or not the Doctor was being serious. He settled on the less confusing of the two statements. “How do ye know it’s spring?”

“It’s just a phrase,” the Doctor explained. “Blowing away the cobwebs, you know. People do insist on giving me presents.” He picked up a polished, perfectly round stone. “Take this one, for instance. I seem to remember an emperor giving it to me.” Bands of blue light shimmered up and down the stone, as if in response to his touch. “Oh! You know, it’s taken me all these years to find the power switch.”

“What does it do?” Jamie reached out to pass his finger through the light, shuddering when some invisible force made his hand tingle. “Is it dangerous?”

“Oh, no, no, no,” the Doctor said, beaming. “It’s a night-light.” He handed it to Jamie, his expression turning expectant. “Do you like it?”

“Aye, it’s...” Jamie tossed the stone from one hand to another, flinching when the light vanished. “Nice?”

Chuckling, the Doctor reached out to squeeze the stone, lighting it up again. “There you are, see? You can keep it, if you like.”

“Keep it?” Jamie held it up to the light. “Don’t ye want it? It looks like it ought tae be worth somethin’.”

“Almost everything in here is worth something. They’re lovely keepsakes, but they’re not much good just sitting around.” The Doctor twisted his hands together anxiously. “I’d like you to have it.”

“Aye, alright. Thanks.” Jamie grinned at him. “I’ll be runnin’ out of space soon.”

“Space?”

“Aye, in my room.” The Doctor still looked puzzled, and Jamie could not help but laugh. “’Cause ye keep givin’ me rocks.”

“Oh.”

“Did ye not realise -”

“I thought that by now, you’d -” The Doctor turned his back to Jamie. “I’m quite alright here, thank you, Jamie. You go and enjoy your picnic.”

“Aye, I will.” Jamie looked at him curiously. “Are ye alright?”

“Quite fine, quite fine.” The Doctor flapped his hands in dismissal, still not looking at Jamie, before diving determinedly back into the chest. “Oh! I haven’t seen _this_ in years, either -” He froze when Jamie patted his back in farewell. “Good _bye_ , Jamie.”

Glancing over his shoulder as he left, Jamie could have sworn he caught a glimpse of a blush spreading across the Doctor’s cheeks.

* * *

“Sir?”

The sound of a voice almost startled Jamie out of the tree. Steadying himself on his branch, he peered down at the ground, stiffening when he saw a little girl looking back up at him. He watched her cautiously for a moment, but she remained solid, no hints of bone flashing through her skin, and he relaxed. She was perfectly real, he reassured himself. There were no ghosts here. He was still safe.

“It’s Cleo, isn’t it?” The girl nodded. “I’ve told ye all, ye dinnae have tae call me sir.”

“We must.”

Sitting up, Jamie swung his leg over the branch and jumped down. “Why?”

Cleo wrung her hands together for a moment, clearly anxious. “The Higher Ones say we must always call them ‘sir’, or they’ll hurt us. If they take away mama’s cows, my little brother will die, sir.”

“Och, but I’m no’ fancy like them, am I?” Jamie sat down next to her. “I’m just Jamie.” He cast his gaze out over the village, taking in the rough houses, ramshackle wooden additions cobbled onto clay buildings and crowding the streets. Had it not been for the ghosts, he could have liked it here, he thought. There were times when he thought the desert sun would burn him where he stood, and the people had funny ways, but something about their laughter and singing and big, sprawling families reminded him of home. “I’m no’ one of your lairds. An’ - I’ll tell ye a wee secret – I dinnae really like them, either.”

“You mustn’t say that!” Cleo looked scandalised, but she was smiling despite herself. “They’ll hear you.”

“Course they won’t. They’re all out with the Doctor, lookin’ for those ghosts.”

“You don’t like the lairds, but you like your Doctor.” Cleo was looking at him curiously.

“He’s no’ like them either.”

“He’s clever like them,” Cleo pointed out.

“Aye, but they’re no’ kind like him.”

Hurriedly tugging a string out from beneath her shirt, Cleo pulled it over her head and handed it to him, clearly embarrassed about having argued with him. “The Doctor told me to give you this,” she mumbled.

A smooth stone hung from the string by a hole worn in its centre. A note was tied on, and Jamie hurriedly unfolded it, squinting down at it in an effort to decipher the Doctor’s handwriting. “On the trail of some Unnamed,” he read slowly. “Should be back by tomorrow. Tell Ben and Polly where I’ve gone.” He looked down at Cleo. “They took ye out there with them? Why?”

“They took all the children,” Cleo said quietly. “Sir – I mean, the Doctor couldn’t stop them.”

“’Cause the Unnamed come for the kids,” Jamie muttered darkly to himself. “They’re usin’ ye as bait. An’ they sent ye back here alone? When they know the Unnamed -” Cleo nodded, and he buried his head in his hands. “ _Ach_. Well, I hope the Doctor gives them hell for it.”

“He was still shouting at them when they sent me away.”

“That’s my Doctor.” Grinning fondly, Jamie stretched out, leaning back and propping himself up on his elbows. “Just ye wait. He’ll still be shoutin’ when he gets back, too.”

Cleo was looking at him strangely again. “Do you love him?”

Jamie laughed to himself. “I dinnae see how anyone couldn’t. He’s -” He glanced back at the Doctor’s letter, as if hoping it could give him the words he was missing. “Hey, there’s more. P.S. – keep the stone.” He laughed again, tipping his head back against the stone. “Course. He would say that.” Almost automatically, he handed the stone to Cleo. “Here, ye can have it.”

Cleo cupped the stone in her hands, staring down at it in equal parts puzzlement and wonder. “Won’t sir – I mean, won’t the Doctor be angry?” She gazed at the stone like it was the most precious thing she had seen in her life.

“He’d want ye tae have it too.” Jamie ruffled her hair. “He’ll get ye out of this, and sort your lairds out too, most like. You’ll see.”

* * *

The Doctor scrambled up the stairs and onto the platform where Jamie stood, ducking hurriedly behind a pillar. “It’s done,” he said breathlessly.

“Aye, I thought so.” Jamie nodded down at the cheering crowd of people filling the streets below them. “Is it really over? Those beasties won’t come back?”

“Oh, they never meant any harm. Space cuttlefish aren’t particularly dangerous, you know – unlike space squid.” He shuddered. “Or time squid. I ought to be more careful about avoiding those, you know.”

“Oh, aye.”

“It was all a miscommunication, really.” The Doctor peered over the balcony wall nervously. “I explained to the cuttlefish that they couldn’t stay here, and they quite politely moved on. But people will insist on believing that things are out to eat them.”

“Hey, it didnae look that friendly from down here. We thought -” Jamie swallowed thickly. He looked away from the Doctor, trying to unstick the words from his throat, clenching his fists to hide the shaking in his hands. “We thought ye were dead, when that thing started screamin’ -” He was overcome with a sudden urge to kiss the Doctor, to take him by the shoulders and kiss him until his heart stopped racing, then run his hands down his sides and check that he was alright, to anchor himself in the Doctor’s presence. It was not a feeling he was unaccustomed to, not anymore – but this time it felt surprisingly natural, as if he kissed the Doctor every day. As if it was something he was allowed to want. “Ye did it,” he said instead, feeling a little light-headed.

“Well, yes, I suppose I did.” The warmth of the Doctor’s smile was not helping, and Jamie crossed his arms over his chest as if trying to hide the butterflies that had suddenly taken up residence there. “Couldn’t have done it without you,” he added almost thoughtlessly.

“Och, I didnae do anything,” Jamie protested.

“Of course you did. And the people here agree with me.” The Doctor reached out to tug one of Jamie’s hands away from his chest, uncurling his fingers and placing a small object in his palm. “They wanted you to have this.”

Jamie hardly needed to look at the object to know what it was, but burst into laughter upon seeing it anyway. For a moment, he had believed the excuse, but he recognised the stone as one the Doctor had picked up from the last planet they had visited. “They wanted me tae have this?” he said, still grinning.

“Yes, that’s right.” The Doctor’s smile was still warm, a little too adoring for Jamie to meet his eyes properly.

“Will ye thank them for me?” he asked instead, pocketing the stone.

“If you like.” The Doctor froze, then without warning seized him by the wrist and dragged him through the doors behind them, pressing him into an alcove. “Shh!”

“What’re ye _doin_ ’ -” Jamie shoved the Doctor’s hand away from his mouth. “What’s wrong?” he hissed.

“I saw them coming up the stairs,” the Doctor murmured.

“Who’s them?” The doors slid open, and Jamie craned his neck to see who had followed them in, but the Doctor pulled him further back into the shadows.

“Empty,” an unfamiliar voice said. “He must’ve gone further up.”

“Lead the way.”

Jamie frowned when he recognised the second voice. “Alex? Isn’t he the leader of the colony? What’re ye hidin’ from him for?”

The Doctor remained quiet for a moment, seeming almost embarrassed. “They want to make me the leader of the colony instead,” he said at length. “I’ve been trying to avoid them ever since Polly told me what they were planning.”

Jamie grinned. “Seems an awful lot of fuss just for that, Doctor.”

“Me, the leader of the colony, it just wouldn’t do, Jamie. They’ll ship me back to Earth to be sworn in without so much as a by-your leave, we wouldn’t be able to get back to the TARDIS for _months_ -” The Doctor tapped him on the chest as if to quieten him. “They’re coming back.”

“He must’ve gone further into the museum,” Alex was saying. “I saw him go up the ladder, he can’t have gone far.”

The Doctor grimaced. “I’d rather hoped they’d pass us by and look somewhere else.”

“Can ye not just talk to them?”

“I have! Or sent Polly to reason with them, at least. They’re very determined.” The Doctor peered around Jamie. “Oh, my word, here they come.”

“It cannae be _that_ bad -”

“We’ll have to make a break for it -”

“Doctor -”

“When I say run, run -”

* * *

Were it not for the fact that the Doctor was breathing quietly, Jamie might almost have thought he had fallen asleep. Reflections from the screen flashed in what little Jamie could see of his eyes – but then again, he had known the Doctor to sleep like that, eyes still open like he was watching out for something. It had unsettled him when he had first seen it, but by now he had learnt to accept it as just another strange habit of the Doctor’s. Only the fact that he was not snoring made him suspect that the Doctor was awake.

“ _Are_ ye asleep?” he murmured.

“Mmph.” The Doctor nestled further into his side. “Not quite.”

“Alrigh’ then.” Jamie stroked his hair, barely brushing his fingertips through it at first, then continuing with more confidence when the Doctor leaned up into his touch. “Ben and Polly went tae bed.”

“Yes, I thought they might.” The Doctor yawned. “You’re more than welcome to go too, you know. I know you’re not particularly interested in xenobiology.”

“Och, I won’t go just yet. I was enjoyin’ myself.” Reaching across the Doctor to take the remote, Jamie frowned down at the multitude of buttons. “Hey, how do ye make it louder?”

“Here.” The Doctor guided his finger to the right button. He settled back against Jamie’s side after a moment, but did not let go of his hand.

“What’s it about again?”

“Alikiens,” the Doctor said absently. Jamie watched the big, clumsy birds wander around on the screen for a moment, trying to puzzle out whether or not they were familiar. “Oh, we haven’t met them before.” The Doctor’s words made him jump. That was another funny habit of his – answering before you even asked your question. Jamie had yet to figure out whether he was a mind reader, or just uncannily good at guessing what people were thinking. “I’d rather like to, someday. Their feathers are iridescent, it’s – ah – quite fascinating.”

“ _Alikiens mate for life_ ,” the documentary droned. “ _When they reach maturity at five years of age, they begin choosing the long ritual of choosing their partner_.”

The Doctor buried his face in Jamie’s shoulder. “Oh, dear,” he mumbled. “I’ve put on the wrong disk, haven’t I?”

“What’s wrong?” Jamie asked. He grinned, reaching into his pocket for the last of the sweets the Doctor had given him earlier. “Did they get something wrong again?” The Doctor shook his head.

“ _When they have found the perfect partner, young Alikiens make their suit by presenting their prospective partner with a stone_.”

Still feeling around in his pocket for the sweet, Jamie’s fingers brushed against one of the stones the Doctor had given him.

“Hey, Doctor...” he said slowly. The Doctor let out a whine, as petulant and childish as Jamie had ever heard him, and he smiled, sure that he was right. “Were ye giving me all those we stones to try and… try and _ask me out_?”

“No,” the Doctor mumbled. “They were just – just presents, that’s all.” When he lifted his head, the anxiety sparkling in his eyes betrayed the truth of the matter. “If – if I was trying to ask you out, would you have said yes?”

 _Yes_ , Jamie wanted to cry out. _Yes, yes, yes. As if I’ve wanted anything else these past few weeks. As if I’ve ever wanted anything more in my life_. But for all his efforts, all his past wishes and half-smothered dreams, the words stuck in his throat. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, feeling as if he was about to step off a cliff, with no sure idea of how far away the ground was. Unthinkingly, he shifted away from the Doctor, wrapping his arms around himself, locking the butterflies in.

“I suppose it was a rather silly thing to ask.” The Doctor’s voice was quiet, but the sadness in it was no less clear.

“Yes!” The words tripped off Jamie’s tongue at last, and still he wanted to clap his hands over his mouth as if to force them back inside. But the butterflies were out now, spilling out of his mouth, and for all the trembling in his fingers he was glad of it. “Yes,” he repeated, a little more softly, but no less eagerly. The Doctor’s eyes had gone wide with surprise and hope, and he grinned down at him, feeling giddy. “Course I would’ve. I thought ye knew.”

“Knew?”

“Aye, that – that I liked ye.” Jamie shook his head, burying his face in his hands. His heart had surely come loose, rattling around his chest with every beat. His mind was blank like fresh-fallen snow, and yet words were coming out of his mouth as if of their own accord. “I thought I was so _stupid_ , bein’ so obvious about it.” He laughed, surprising himself with how hysterical he sounded. “I – I need tae think about it.”

“Yes, of course.” The Doctor shuffled further down the sofa, away from him. “I’ll – ah – I’ll go to bed, if you don’t want me here.” His words were fast and breathless, and Jamie knew the Doctor’s heart must be beating as erratically as his own. “We can talk about it in the morning, if you’d like. A rest might do us good.”

“No, no, don’t go, I don’t want ye to -” Jamie grabbed the Doctor’s arm, dragging him back down onto the sofa. “I dinnae ken what I want tae ask first.” He thought about it for a moment, then seized upon a question at random. “Were ye trying tae be like those birds, or do your people really give each other stones?”

The Doctor shrugged, looking almost as shell-shocked as Jamie felt. “I like stones,” he said awkwardly.

Jamie nodded, knowing he had to ask the most pressing question, still wondering if there was a way around it. “What do we do now?”

“Well, I’m, ah, not quite sure.”

“Do I kiss ye? Do ye kiss me? Is kissin’ even somethin’ ye do?”

“It isn’t, but I’m more than willing to try.” The Doctor’s hand twitched, as if he wanted to move but was unsure of what to do. Jamie smiled tentatively, reaching up to cup his face and pull him close, but pausing at the last moment. He was sure he looked as startled as the Doctor did, eyes wide and his hands still shaking.

It was the Doctor who closed the distance between them in the end, kissing him clumsily, his hands flapping around awkwardly. After a moment’s fumbling, Jamie managed to catch them and hold them securely against his waist.

“I think I’m in love with ye,” he choked out when he drew back for breath, beaming.

The Doctor nodded, resting their foreheads together. “Yes, I...” He struggled with the words, looking stricken until Jamie pressed his finger to his lips.

“Ye don’t have to say it,” he said. “Here.” Fishing something out of his pocket, he handed it to the Doctor, closing his fingers around it. “I know what ye meant.”

Uncurling his fingers, the Doctor burst into laughter when he saw that Jamie had handed him a stone.


End file.
